Dinosaur Articles

Dinosaur Intelligence

there are many myths regarding dinosaur intelligence, the research shows
that brain size and intelligence varied greatly from one group of dinosaurs
to another.

Some dinosaurs were slow to grasp situations, but others were just as
intelligent as many mammals alive today.

Dinosaurs had nervous systems similar to today's vertebrates. The main
control center of the system is the brain, which merges with the spinal
cord that runs through the hollow core of the backbone.

Nerves branching out from the spinal cords to all parts of the body,
to send and collect information to different muscles throughout the body.

The brain is responsible for initiating movement and making sure the
body works in a coordinated way. But there are some exceptions, such as
reflex, which are triggered without the brain being directly involved.

if you grab something that is really hot for example, your hand will
let go of the item immediately, this is because an automatic response
has been triggered by your spinal cord.

Reactions like these are essential to survival, these reactions have
to be fast but in the case of some large dinosaurs the farther the signals
had to travel the longer it will take to react to a certain situation.

It is estimated that nerve signals travel about 130 ft./s, but dinosaurs
that were hundreds of feet in length, this signal will have to travel
many feet creating a significant time lag.

This is where researchers believe that in dinosaurs such as Stegosaurus
Bay had a "second brain". Instead of being a true brain, it
was actually an enlarged relay center that control these automatic reactions.
This "second brain" was located near the rear of the animal.

Dinosaur skulls often contain the remains of a brain cavity. This allows
researchers to use computerized imaging or a more simple technique of
filling the cavity with fluid to measure the size of their brains.

Dinosaur brains vary in size, from a walnut to a grapefruit. But the
size of the body is also taking into consideration, the larger the animal
the more nerves were needed to control it.

In order to estimate how intelligent dinosaurs where, researchers have
made detailed studies of the ratio between brain weight and total body
weight. For humans the figure comes out at about 1:40; for an average
dog is about 1:125. For instead stegosaur the figure was about 1:50,000
indicating that these animals were not very bright.

By looking at dinosaurs we find that plant eating dinosaurs are on the
bottom of the intelligence list. This is because these dinosaurs did not
need to stock our ambush their their food. Their life consisted largely
of eating and digesting.

Some of the most intelligent dinosaurs were the small dromaeosaurs such
as Troodon. They survived by learning from experience, which gave them
the best chance of making successful kills. For them intelligence was
essential for survival.